


getting along

by Anonymous



Series: the knismollymauk agenda [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (just kinda hinted at), Canon Aromantic Character, Canon Asexual Character, Non-Sexual Kink, Other, Subspace, Tickling, Touch-Starved Mollymauk Tealeaf, well. touch-gluttonous at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:15:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28519230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "All right there?" asks Caduceus, in that low, gravelly voice.He keeps massaging at Molly's side, though, and Molly chokes a little bit, jerks away from the touch and into Caduceus' side. He can feel goosebumps racing all the way up his back, an involuntary smile tugging at the corners of his lips."I - it's - 'm just - ticklish," he manages.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay & Mollymauk Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay/Mollymauk Tealeaf
Series: the knismollymauk agenda [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2178735
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60
Collections: Anonymous





	getting along

**Author's Note:**

> timeline? Don't Worry About It
> 
> this is part of the all tieflings are knismos agenda. rated M cause it's technically kink, but there's no sex, just an aroace guy who likes making his friend feel nice. similarly, the ship tag is cause Molly had a one-sided crush for a bit, this isn't romantic

Molly hadn't really been sure what to make of the new guy for a while.  _ Caduceus can't be  _ that _ nice, _ he'd thought to himself.

Caduceus is that nice. A little awkward and gullible sometimes, but, hey, he lived alone for a long time. Getting him to wander off on a tangent is so easy it's almost not even fun anymore, but then Caduceus also has this  _ uncanny _ ability to see through Molly's bullshit and call him on it, which surprised Molly so much when it first happened that he had a crush on the guy for about a week. He's gentle and wise and mostly even-keeled, and Molly has always gravitated to his opposites.

They become friends when Molly gets over the crush and starts actually talking to him. It is assisted by the twin facts that Yasha is off Yasha-ing, and that Molly gets cold at night. Caleb is too bony and Jester runs icy cold and Nott is all limbs and Beau sleeps without blankets and Fjord is an awful cuddler, and Molly could sleep alone, yeah, but those nights on the road get  _ cold. _ So it's a huge relief when, in the dimness of one late night, Molly finally gets up the courage to mumble to the firbolg next to him, "Hey, uh, I'm cold, could you-" and Caduceus welcomes him into his big furry arms without a second thought.

Molly is tactile as hell, and he still hasn't learned the meaning of shame, so he's pretty unscrupulous about getting Caduceus to touch him after that. Tends to wriggle his way into the guy's personal space, duck under his arm to press himself against his side. Sometimes, when Caduceus is sitting down, Molly comes up behind him and leans on his shoulders and Caduceus turns to nuzzle into Molly's arm a bit, which, wonderful.

They're on watch together one night, and Molly has tucked himself under Caduceus' arm, because, duh. His hand is resting just above Molly's hip, and it's casually intimate in a way that Molly craves like air. Molly scans the horizon slowly, enjoying the quiet noises of the night, the tranquil warmth of his companion.

At least, he does until Caduceus starts rubbing steady, small circles with his thumb, right against Molly's side. Molly startles.

"All right there?" asks Caduceus, in that low, gravelly voice.

He keeps massaging at Molly's side, though, and Molly chokes a little bit, jerks away from the touch and into Caduceus' side. He can feel goosebumps racing all the way up his back, an involuntary smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"I - it's - 'm just - ticklish," he manages.

It is an understatement. Molly doesn't  _ mind _ being tickled, quite the opposite, but it still makes him feel like he's twitching out of his own skin. Actually admitting it out loud kind of makes the back of his neck prickle. He shifts in his spot.

"Oh, really?" says Caduceus, pausing. "That's funny."

Molly holds his breath. Caduceus tilts his head, and Molly isn't looking at him but he can  _ feel _ himself being examined.

And then -  _ yes _ \- Caduceus lets out a  _ heh _ and starts tickling him for real. He wraps both his arms around Molly and presses his fingers into Molly's ribs, tickling up each groove. Molly barely manages a few seconds before he's bubbling over with giggles. He tries to keep the volume under control - it's nighttime, after all - but then Caduceus buries his fingers under his arms and Molly's  _ gone. _

"This is quite nice," Caduceus says, sounding peaceful.

Molly tries to splutter out a retort, but Caduceus has moved on to kneading over his stomach with gentle, unhurried fingers and Molly is going to  _ die. _ He squirms, kicks, and finally he buries his head in Caduceus' shoulder and snorts out laughter helplessly, until-

"Some of us," comes Beau's frigid voice from the dome, and Caduceus pauses, "are trying to  _ sleep." _

"I'm not saying a word," Caduceus protests. At the same time, he pinches Molly's side, just above the hip.

Molly lets out a frankly embarrassing squeak, and he can  _ feel _ the silent rumble of Caduceus' laughter, but the torment does stop. Molly nuzzles into his chest, feeling warm all over.

* * *

Caduceus doesn't tickle him again.

Molly is tiefling enough to admit to himself that he wants him to. He is  _ not, _ however, capable of straight up asking for it. He's as cuddly with Caduceus as ever, and he tries all sorts of bullshit like stretching his arms over his head way more than he needs to and nudging him with his bare feet to get his attention and even poking at Caleb or Beau to try and start a tickle fight that maybe Caduceus will join in on, which doesn't work because Beau just punches him on instinct and Caleb turns into such a helpless flailing blob when he gets tickled that one could hardly call it a fight at all.

He waits until they're rooming together at an inn to bring it up. When they met him, Caduceus liked to brush his teeth and go to sleep at eight pm. Molly has been making an effort to be a bad influence on him. Some days, for example, Caduceus stays up til ten. It's baby steps.

Once they're in their pajamas, which for Caduceus is a full set of jimjams and for Molly is a scrap of a crop top and a pair of booty shorts, he goes to sit on Caduceus' bed next to him. Caduceus looks down at him with a smile. "Yes?"

"Hi," says Molly. "Can you ttttttt - uh."

He'd gone into that sentence with confidence, he really had. Caduceus waits patiently. Molly breathes and tries again. "That time on watch, when you uh."

"Yes…?"

"It was nice. I liked it. Can you do it again?" Caduceus tilts his head in a question. Molly sighs deeply and steels himself. "When you tickled me."

"Oh. I was wondering when you'd ask."

_ "When?" _ Molly hadn't been  _ that _ obvious, had he?

"You seem to enjoy being tickled," Caduceus clarifies. "But you didn't ask again."

"I do," Molly says into his hands, "it's just, uh, embarrassing to ask about, but even so, I've just done the asking, so, uhm."

"So…?"

"Could you do it. Please."

"Do…?"

Mollymauk removes his face from his hands to see just the faintest glint of amusement in Caduceus' big dewy eyes - "you're  _ teasing." _

"I am," Caduceus admits, with an unrepentant smile. "It's just fun to watch you squirm."

"I could be doing a  _ lot more squirming-" _

"Yes, yes. Of course." Caduceus gathers Molly into his lap and gets to work.

He starts under Molly's arms, and Molly starts quivering immediately, twitching from side to side as Caduceus strokes gently at the sensitive hollows. His arms are just resting loosely by his sides, and he  _ just _ asked for this, he can't squeeze them down - but, fuck, he also can't  _ not. _ Caduceus stops and blinks down at him, fingers trapped in Molly's armpits. "Well, you can't do that if you want me to keep tickling you."

He just has to say the word, huh? "I - sorry, it's hard to-" Caduceus wiggles his fingers, just once, and Molly curses and jumps about a foot. There's an involuntary smile dancing around his lips. "Fuckin' - can you hold my - no, you need both hands to - here, I'll-"

He shifts around to sit fully in Caduceus' lap, back against his chest. He reaches back and links his hands behind Caduceus' neck, leaving his whole torso exposed.

Molly's met up with people for sessions like this before, and they often like to shove him around, when it's his turn to take it. Pull his arms up and push him facedown and tie off various parts of his body to various parts of the bed. And  _ fuck _ does he like that too, but there's something about just doing it to himself, not even letting himself pretend that he's not itching for it. "Okay - uh, try that-?"

He feels Caduceus' fingertips in his armpits again, only he's completely exposed now and Caduceus is stroking in small circles, light and gentle. Molly  _ whines, _ trembles, chokes out a laugh. He can feel Caduceus rumble a laugh behind him. Caduceus tickles up and down the undersides of Molly's biceps for a moment, sending shivers all the way down his spine to curl in his toes, and then works his way back down, slowly, to the tops of Molly's ribs.

He starts kneading there, as unhurried as anything else, and Molly breaks. He snorts out a real laugh, then another, and then it's pouring out of him as Caduceus presses his fingers into each groove and pinches. There's a second's pause, but it's just so Caduceus can slide his hands up Molly's crop top and keep working his way down Molly's ribcage. When he finally makes it to the last rib, he settles in to tickle just below, where Molly's sides are stretched out bare and soft. Caduceus flutters his fingers against Molly's lower back, making him startle and curse and nearly lose his grip on his own hands, and then does it again and again until Molly's protests melt to helpless laughter. 

It takes  _ millennia, _ Molly's pretty sure, for Caduceus to work his way down Molly's sides. And when he does finally finish, he just settles in to pinch at Molly's hipbones, gentle and relentless. Molly wriggles frantically, but he's still spread out like a display, no chance of defending himself. Caduceus puts both hands on Molly's stomach, fingertips only, like he's going to play a piano. Then he draws all his fingers inwards toward each other, and then he does it again, and Molly kicks his feet fruitlessly, bubbling over with snorts and whines and tumbling laughs.

Caduceus eases off after a moment, but Molly barely has a moment to process it before Caduceus is gently removing Molly's arms and shifting Molly off his lap and towards his headboard. He takes Molly's feet into his lap. Molly quivers.

But of  _ course _ he has to ask- "Want me to tickle here, too?"

Molly squeaks out an affirmation, and then he's squirming around all over Caduceus' bed, goosebumps jolting their way up his legs. Caduceus tickles under his toes and between them with long, deft fingers. He scritches at Molly's heels and his insteps and over the sensitive tops of his feet. He tickles around Molly's ankles and up his calves to his knees, squeezing around each one and tickling the backs, and then working his way back down as Molly splutters with laughter and writhes on Caduceus' pillows.

When Caduceus finally, finally releases him, Molly sprawls out on his rumpled bedclothes and beams at the ceiling as his breath returns to him. He feels warm and tingly and wonderfully touched, in the non-sexual way he  _ needs _ sometimes, and that reminds him to ask- "This isn't weird for you, is it?"

"Hmm?"

"Like, y'know, in a sex way. I mean, it's hot for me sometimes, when I'm hooking up with someone, but not like this, it's - it's just nice for me, I'm not trying to use you to get off or anything."

"Oh." Caduceus scoots up to sit cross-legged next to him. He strokes absently at Mollymauk's hair as he speaks, and Molly  _ purrs. _ "No, I don't really go in for that sort of thing. Sex or dating or anything."

"Yeah, I kind of got that sense."

"I'm doing this because it makes you happy. And because it's fun to get you to shut up for a bit."

"Hey, everyone's got something."

They're quiet for a comfortable moment, and then Molly adds: "I did have a crush on you for a week, way back."

"Thank you," says Caduceus with a chuckle.

Molly starts fidgeting again after a moment, coming down off the tickle high. He rolls over, nuzzles into Caduceus's arm briefly, looks around the inn room. "D'you think the others are-"

"You don't seem like you've had enough," Caduceus observes placidly.

From anyone else, that would seem like a threat. From Caduceus, it's a simple truth. Damn his insightfulness. Molly doesn't even always admit these things to himself. He ducks his head, feeling giddy flustered. "I mean, if you're offering…"

"Of course," and then Caduceus reaches over and his horrible, wonderful fingertips are on Molly's sides again and Molly is laughing loud and unguarded.

The thing about getting tickled for ages and ages is that it's  _ tiring. _ Molly's abs start to ache from the laughter and his muscles from the struggling and his cheeks from the wide, involuntary grin, and his desperate, violent struggles gradually slow as Caduceus works him over.  _ He _ can probably go forever. All he's gotta do is explore Mollymauk's torso with sneaky, clever fingers, finding the spots that make Molly twitch and squirm and dissolve into laughing and laughing and laughing. After not too long, he can’t even move his arms to protect his sides anymore. Just lolls back and lets Caduceus’ fingers play over his exposed skin, giggling helplessly.

It's a good few minutes after Caduceus finally stops tickling him that Mollymauk floats back down to earth. He finds himself sprawled over Caduceus’ pillows, and becomes aware that he’s grinning wide and goofy, nowhere near composed enough for his usual smirk.

He blinks up at Caduceus, hazy and boneless. Caduceus smiles down at him. "Now I know how to quiet you down."

"Any time you like," Molly groans.

“Was that what you wanted?”

As if he doesn’t  _ know. _ Molly just rolls his eyes at him, and, sure enough, there’s that gravelly chuckle. “I’m glad.”

“Mmm.”

Molly turns over to nuzzle into Caduceus’ side. Caduceus reaches over him to pick up a book from the bedside table, and starts petting Molly’s hair again with his free hand, which scrambles his brain all over again.

“Thank you,” Molly yawns into his shirt. “For that.”

“Hey, any time you like.”

It’s to the quiet sounds of pages turning and Caduceus’ steady breathing that Mollymauk, feeling drained and utterly peaceful, drifts off.


End file.
